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Tank:F01 RenaultFT
Renault FT 001 image:Renault_FT_002.jpg Renault FT 002 image:Renault_FT_003.jpg Renault FT 003 image:Renault_FT_004.jpg Renault FT 004 |History= The Renault FT, model of 1917, was a Char Léger, or French light tank, that is widely acknowledged as one of the most revolutionary and influential tank designs in history. The FT was the first operational tank to have its armament mounted within a fully rotating turret. The FT's basic configuration with the turret on top, engine in the back, and the driver in front became the standard pattern, repeated in most tanks to this day. Armor historian Steven Zaloga has called the Renault FT "the world's first modern tank". (1') The FT was the ancestor of a long line of French tanks produced by Renault: the FT Kégresse, the NC1, the NC2, the Char D1, the Char D2, and the R35. ('2, 3) It inspired and influenced many later designs by other manufacturers including the H35 and the Somua 35. (4') In addition to its pioneering design, the FT proved to be both cheap and suitable for mass production techniques. It became a popular export for France and Renault and was also licensed and copied for production by other countries. In the U.S., a slightly modified version was built under license from Renault as the Six Ton Tank, or M1917 (of which 950 were built, 64 before the end of WWI, but too late to be used in action). The Italians produced as their standard tank the FIAT 3000, a moderately close copy of the FT. The Soviet Red Army captured fourteen burnt-out Renaults from White Russian forces during the Russian Civil War, and rebuilt them at the Krasnoye Sormovo Factory in 1920. Nearly 15 exact copies, called "Russian Renoe" were produced in 1920-1922, but due to technical production problems, they never actually saw the battlefield. In 1928-1931 the first completely Soviet-designed tank was the T-18, a derivation of the Renault with sprung suspension. In all, the Renault FT was used by the armies of Afghanistan, Belgium, Brazil, the Republic of China, Czechoslovakia, Estonia, Finland, France, Nazi Germany, Iran, Japan, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, the Russian White Army, the Soviet Union, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Norway, the United Kingdom, the United States and the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. Development and Production Studies on the production of a new light tank were started in May 1916 by the famous car producer Louis Renault. The evidence strongly suggests that Renault himself drew up the preliminary design, unconvinced that a sufficient power-to-weight ratio could be achieved by the medium tanks requested by the military. One of his most talented designers, Rodolphe Ernst-Metzmaier, prepared the final drawings. Though the project was far more advanced than the first two types of French tank, the Schneider CA1 and the heavy Saint-Chamond, Renault had at first great trouble getting his design accepted by the head of the French tank arm, Colonel (later General) Jean Baptiste Eugène Estienne. Even after the first British use of tanks, on 15 September 1916, when the French people called for the deployment of their own chars, the production of the light tank was almost cancelled in favour of that of a superheavy tank (the later Char 2C). However, now with the support of Estienne and the successive French Commanders in Chief, who saw light tanks as a more feasible and realistic option, Renault was at last able to proceed with the design. The design remained in competition with the Char 2C until the very end of the war. The prototype was slowly refined during the first half of 1917, although the FT was plagued by radiator fan belt and cooling system problems throughout the war. Only 84 FTs were produced in 1917 but 2,697 were delivered before the WWI Armistice. At least 3,694 FTs were produced in total, perhaps more; some estimates go as high as 4,000 for all versions combined. A total of 3,177 were delivered to the French Army; 514 were directly delivered to the U.S. Army; 24 to Great Britain; and three to Italy - giving a total production number of at least 3,694. The first FT tanks had a round cast turret; later improvements consisted of either an octagonal turret or an even later rounded turret of bent steel plate (called the Girod turret, after one of the factories that produced it). The latter two turrets could carry a Puteaux SA 18 gun, or a 7.92 mm Hotchkiss machine gun. Service History The FT was widely used by the French and the US in the later stages of World War I, after 31 May 1918. It was cheap and well-suited for mass production. It reflected an emphasis on quantity, both on a tactical level and strategic: Estienne proposed to overwhelm the enemy defences using a "swarm" of light tanks, and the Entente was thought to be able to gain the upper hand by outproducing the Central Powers. A goal was set of 12,260 to be manufactured (including 4,440 of the US version) before the end of 1919. After WWI, FT tanks were exported to many countries. As a result, FT tanks were used by most nations having armored forces, invariably as their first tank type, including the United States. They took part in many later conflicts, such as the Russian Civil War, Polish-Soviet War, Chinese Civil War, Rif War, Spanish Civil War and Estonian War of Independence. FT tanks were also used in the Second World War, among others in Poland, Finland, France and Kingdom of Yugoslavia, although they were completely obsolete by then. In 1940 the French army still had eight battalions equipped with 63 FTs each and three independent companies with ten each, for a total strength of 534, all with machine guns. During the battle of France, in June 1940, when the German drive to the Channel cut off the French and British units, the complete French materiel reserve was sent to the front as an expediency measure; this included 575 FT tanks. Earlier, 115 sections of FT had been formed for airbase defence. The Wehrmacht captured 1,704 FT tanks. A hundred were again deployed in German service and used for airfield defence. Another 650 were used for patrolling occupied Europe. Some of the tanks were also used by the Germans in 1944 for street-fighting in Paris. ('5) Today, approximately 41 Renault Ft survive, in addition to two Russian-built copies known as Russkiy Renos, three FT TSF command tanks, and twenty American-built M1917's. |HistoricalGallery= image:FT_at_Brussels_Royal_Army_Museum.jpg FT at Brussels Royal Army Museum image:French_Renault_FT_17_tank_on_display_at_Musée_de_l%27Armée,_Les_Invalides.jpg image:FT_17_on_the_battlefield.jpg image:Ft_17,_lineup.jpg image:FT-17%27s_going_forward_to_the_battle_line_at_the_Forest_of_Argonne..gif image:Leiutenant_Colonel_Dwight_D._Eisenhower,_inm_front_of_FT17_tank,_1919..jpg image:Lt._Col_Gene_Berbaum_with_a_FT-17.jpg image:Polish_FT_tanks_during_the_Battle_of_Dyneburg.jpg image:Renault_entering_the_trench_on_trials.jpg image:Renault_FT_17_-_prototype..jpg image:Renault_FT_37mm_SA18_-_22_6_-_8.jpg image:Renault_FT_modèle_1917.jpg image:Renault_FT-17a.jpg image:Crew_locations_shown_with_panels_open.gif File:Renault_FT_with_25mm.jpg A plan to re-arm the Renault FT with the 25mm Raccourci, dating to 1933. This would later re-surface in 1939 as the Renault FT AC. |HistAcc= * The Renault FT never mounted the 13.2 mm Hotchkiss mle. 1930. The machine guns it was equipped with were the 8 mm Hotchkiss M1914 machine gun and the Reibel 7.5mm machine gun, both of which aren't available in game. * The FT could not go faster than 7.7 km/h. |Ref_references= 1 - Zaloga, 2010 2 - Bingham, 1973a 3 - Bingham, 1973b 4 - Bingham, 1971 5 - Regenberg and Scheibert, 1997 |Ref_sources= Bingham, J., 1971, AFV Weapons Profile 36 - Chars Hotchkiss, H35, H39, and Somua 35, Profile, Windsor, UK, 24p. Bingham, J., 1973, AFV Weapons Profile 58 - French Infantry Tanks Part I (Char 2C, D and B) ', Profile, Windsor, UK, 24p. Bingham, J., 1973, '''AFV Weapons Profile 59 - French Infantry Tanks Part II (including R 35 and FCM 36) ', Profile, Windsor, UK, 24p. Regenberg, W. and H. Scheibert, 1997, '''Captured French Tanks Under the German Flag, Schiffer, Atglen, PA, 48p, ISBN:9780764302657. Touzin, P., 1979, Les Véhicules Blindés Français 1900-1944, EPA, Paris, 266p, ISBN:9782851200945. Vauvillier, F., 2013, The Encyclopedia Of French Tanks And Armoured Fighting Vehicles: 1914-1940, Histoire & Collections, Paris, 176p, ISBN:9782352503224. Zaloga, S.J., 2010, French Tanks of World War I, New Vanguard Series 173, Osprey Publishing, Oxford, 48p, ISBN:9781846035135. |Ref_links= * [http://www.chars-francais.net/new/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=688&Itemid=36 1917 Char Renault FT] Web page at Chars-Francais.net. Photos, specs, and brief history in French. * [http://www.militaryfactory.com/armor/detail.asp?armor_id=225 Renault FT-17 Light Tank (1917)] Web page at the MilitaryFactory.com. * [http://www.tanks-encyclopedia.com/ww1/fr/renault_ft.php Renault FT] Web page at Tanks-Encyclopedia.com. * [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renault_FT Renault FT] Web page at Wikipedia.com * http://forum.worldoftanks.com/index.php?/topic/456746-renault-ft-with-25mm-canon-raccourci-mle-1934/ }}